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Regal This Italian farmed reigns supreme

BY GABRIELLA GERSHENSON

     that kicked o my Russian Jewish O family’s most festive meals, I would always reach for the hard-boiled egg whites  lled with red caviar.  e treat primed my palate for all types of  sh roe. I remember the  rst time I tasted true caviar (the term for salted eggs ), an inky constellation on a cracker.  at mouthful embodied everything I liked about salmon roe, intensi ed: the beads were more pun- gent; they imparted astounding  avor for their tiny size.  e world of caviar has changed dramatically since I was a child. Over shing, pollution, and poaching have contributed to the severe depletion of beluga, osetra, and sevruga from the Caspian Sea, the source of 90 percent of the world’s caviar that borders Russia, Iran, and several former Soviet repub- lics.  e Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned the trade of Caspian caviar in 2006 to protect the  sh.  ough the ban has since been relaxed, Cas- pian sturgeon are still very much at risk . Where does that leave lovers of true caviar?  e answer, it seems, is with aquaculture. Today, reputable vendors of caviar primarily sell farmed variet- ies. I’ve tried several—from China, Israel, and the U.S., among other locales—but my favorite is Calvisius Caviar from Italy. Calvisano, a small town between Venice and Milan, is home to Agroittica Lombarda, the most proli c caviar farm in the world, producing more than 20 tons of eggs each year under the Calvisius brand. Perhaps Calvisius has an edge because of experience: the farm (originally in collaboration with the Uni- versity of California at Davis) has been raising white sturgeon, a Paci c species valued for its pale  esh and dark, briny roe, since the 1980s, and it produced its  rst batch of white sturgeon caviar in 1996 . ( e  rm also raises osetra sturgeon and is developing .) Or perhaps it’s the conditions: unlike some farms that continually recycle the same water through their  sh tanks, Agroittica Lombarda treats its sturgeon to a constant supply of fresh groundwater.  e pristine environs are re ected in the  a- vor of the roe, which is delicious.  e white sturgeon eggs are buttery and mild, followed by a clean salinity. Meanwhile, the more complex osetra caviar (pictured at left) reveals rich  avors of walnut and banana. Experts advise that caviar of this qual- ity should be enjoyed unadorned. Yet, I can’t help but crave it

in an egg-white nest, just as I ate it when I was a kid. An ounce of MICHAEL KRAUS Calvisius white sturgeon caviar costs $61, and an ounce of osetra costs $89, plus shipping. Visit www.calvisiuscaviar.com.

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